lalu leaves for Delhi to placate Mulayam, Nitish hopeful

RJD chief lalu Prasad today left for Delhi to placate Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party stormed out of the nascent anti-BJP grand alliance for Bihar assembly elections yesterday.

lalu, who also has family ties with the Uttar Pradesh strongman, left here at noon to persuade Mulayam to continue in the alliance but refused to take questions from the media.

Samajwadi Party had quit the alliance complaining about "humiliation" at the hands of major partners who did not consult the party before finalising seat-sharing arrangement. Under the seat-sharing formula, JD(U) was allotted 100 seats, RJD 98 and Congress 40 in the 243-member assembly, while the remaining five were left for SP, which it found inadequate.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has exuded confidence that the issue would be resolved and SP would return to the secular grouping.

"We are trying to figure out as to what happened that SP took the decision to quit the grand secular alliance," he told reporters.

"I had a talk with Mulayam Singh Yadav day before yesterday and I did not have the inkling that SP would take the decision to quit. Shivpal Singh Yadav (Mulayam's brother and UP minister) was sent to represent the party in the 'Swambhiman rally' on August 30.

"No final word has come from SP. JD(U) President Sharad Yadav met SP chief yesterday and will meet him again today. RJD President lalu Prasad has also spoken to the SP chief," he said, adding Mulayam Singh Yadav was respected by all of them.

"We worked very hard for merger of splinter parties of old Janata Parivar which due to some reasons could not be achieved. But, that is another issue," he added.